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(Orignially Appeared in Morning Consult, Posted Here with Author’s Permission)

This week on Capitol Hill, trade critics will convene to recommend removing the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system – a critical item in the existing North American Free Trade Agreement. This important provision needs to be maintained – not eliminated – in the current negotiation talks.

After mounting challenges negotiators have announced a delay in the talks, which will bleed into the first quarter of 2018. By renegotiating NAFTA, President Donald Trump is following through on

By Shaun Donnelly, Vice President for Investment & Financial Services, U.S. Council for International Business

The annual high-level conference on International Investment Agreements (IIAs), “Phase 2 of IIA Reform” at the U.S. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, October 9-11 was poorly attended by the business community. There were only two of us and therefore we were busy playing defense, with no real opportunity to play offense.

By John G. Murphy, Senior Vice President for International Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

As the U.S., Canada, and Mexico prepare to launch negotiations on August 16 to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the oath attributed to the ancient Greek healer Hippocrates — “Do No Harm” — has become a mantra for U.S. negotiators.

As noted widely in the press, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has in recent weeks consistently insisted:

… he would enter the upcoming NAFTA talks with the goal of modernizing outdated aspects of the 23-year-old agreement, while

By Shaun Donnelly and Eva Hampl, United States Council for International Business

With the Trump administration looking to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, we in industry and other trade policy watchers were eager to see its negotiating objectives, which were released earlier this month. These objectives provide insight on which areas the president’s trade negotiators intend to focus and what the administration wants included in a final agreement.

By Shaun Donnelly, Vice President for Investment Policy, U.S. Council for International Business

On the eve of the opening of U.S.-Mexico-Canada negotiations to modernize the 25 year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the U.S. business community has sent a very clear message to the U.S. administration that getting the investment chapter right remains a top priority for business. One hundred and eight business associations, national and state-based, signed a letter sent August 8 to U.S.

By Peter Robinson, President & CEO, U.S. Council for International Business

In May of this year, the Trump Administration formally notified Congress of its plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which started the process of collecting stakeholder input. Led by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the process resulted in over 12,000 submissions and 3 full days of hearings. USCIB made a detailed submission on NAFTA modernization, and also testified at the corresponding hearing, highlighting issues important to U.S. business in this modernization effort.

Take a look around you. Whether you’re in transit, at work or at home, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is all around you. For millions of Americans FDI also provides good-paying jobs.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis just released its latest FDI data, showing that foreign-headquartered firms invested $396 billion in 2016, breaking the previous record of $353 billion in 2015. A whopping 53 percent of that investment flowed into the U.S. manufacturing sector, supporting 2.4 million U.S. workers, or a fifth of all U.S. manufacturing jobs.

Earlier this month, the European Commission solicited input on their proposal for an international investment court, or multilateral reform of investment dispute resolution. USCIB, along with many business groups in the United States and other countries, submitted comments to the consultation, reflecting our members’ long-held and frequently articulated view that the EU’s proposal is an inadequate response to what is largely a political problem in the EU.

We are seeing some worrying smoke signals from the White House these days that the Trump administration may be considering abandoning the decade-long effort to negotiate a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with China. Pulling up stakes and retreating home behind mercantilist walls would be a serious mistake for U.S. interests. We at USCIB and the U.S. business community more generally have long supported the U.S.-China BIT negotiations which actually began in 2008, toward the end of the George W. Bush Administration.

Inbound investment is almost always lauded. The reasons are obvious. The United States is home to nearly $3 trillion dollars of foreign direct investment that directly and indirectly employs 24 million Americans and accounts for more than $500 billion in annual payroll.

But, too often we think of things in zero sum terms. That thinking leads us to believe that we should welcome inbound investment, but shun outbound investment. The truth is American outbound investment drives our exports, makes our economy and U.S.